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Laura and I have been talking and we have decided that the time has come to let The DLRage Podcast go.

First, it should be noted that Laura and I are not having any drama, or some kind of falling out. We were friends when she came to the show, and we are closer friends now. We made the decision to stop the show together. It took ten minutes. After we made the decision, we spent the better part of an hour talking about “House of Cards”, so you can see how very important The DLRage is to both of us.

We were doing it for fun, and it was never our everything— which I think is a big trap that podcasters fall into. I feel sorry for podcasters who allow a hobby to consume their lives; and when you boil it down, it really is an expendable pastime…unless someone’s paying you.

Part of doing something like a free podcast with another person, or any pastime where no one is getting paid, is being willing to work with them, not against them, and to understand that they have obligations and responsibilities that override any obligations or responsibilities to a hobby.

Laura Gannon has a very important job, and takes it very seriously. Her job has become more time-consuming in the past months and on top of that she is a wife and mother. All of that must come before hobbies.

I am an aspiring author. I also work for a music education charity, Rising Star Music Fund. On top of projects that I have to complete, my writing, which is my life’s ambition, and my new podcast, Disney Story Origins, and fatherhood, my plate is as full as Laura’s.

Something had to give.

Usually people preface an announcement like this with a platitude like “with a heavy heart” or “sadly”. But Laura and I aren’t heavy hearted or sad about this decision. It’s was fun while it lasted and we both wish we had time to keep it going, but here and now it’s a weight that we are lifting from our shoulders. It’s one less thing to occupy our thoughts.

Also, my part in the DLRage has created a false image of me as a vulgarian, because it’s a Disney show and I have the audacity to express myself honestly and curse. People seem to think that I just walk around town spouting expletives all over the place.

For example, on Facebook, my brother posted a photo of one of his daughters flipping the bird to the camera. She wasn’t really flipping anyone the bird. She had a boo boo on her finger and was showing it off. It’s funny in that context. But someone, a DLRage listener, made the comment “She must have been hanging around Paul.”

There were many reasons to stop the show floating around in my brain, but that comment was the bullet that killed The DLRage Podcast.

So yes, it’s true that Laura and I are both swamped, but the greater truth is that I don’t want people thinking that a few four letter words (that I BEEP OUT) comprise my entire personality. I am who I am, and I won’t tow anybody’s lines, but I have dignity and enough respect for people to control what comes out of my mouth. I don’t want people thinking that because I curse in the only venue that actually afforded me the luxury of cursing, I’m some kind of roughneck, deadbeat, angry, doesn’t-give-a-crap kind of person.

I have decided to put my free time into The Disney Story Origins Podcast, because (A) I believe it shows me as the friendly and honest, dignified and intelligent person that I truly am (or at least am trying to be) and (B) it has more listeners than DLRage ever had.

I mean SERIOUSLY more.

Apparently its bad protocol to talk about Download numbers, but if DLRage could fill a night club like The Roxy every month; The Disney Story Origins Podcast is filling Madison Square Garden every month. And every month it moves between the #1 and #20 top rated podcast in the Literature category. Look for the DLRage in iTunes without doing a search, you’ll find it. Eventually. DSO, you will find in less than a minute.

The only e-mail DLRage ever earned me was venomous criticism, people telling me how crass and low-rent Laura and I are, and how Hell yawns before the pair of us. Disney Story Origins is getting praise, and enthusiastic support from my kind of people— authors and history buffs, mythology enthusiasts, and Disney fans.

I love Disneyland. I’m there almost every weekend, but I’m still a tourist. I don’t care which “Alice” is singing on a given night and I don’t concern myself with changes to the parks. I embrace change. I have an opinion, but not a well informed one, and while that was a great foil for Daniel in the early days of The DisGeek Podcast, the only thing the DLRage truly had going for it was Laura’s CM knowledge and me cursing about everything and getting cheap laughs.

So I hope you understand why the DLRage must be finished, with dignity. It was fun, but it’s time is over.

I’m still here. I still have a podcast, but it’s a show that I am proud of, and hopefully a show that makes you all proud of me—a podcast that shows you who, and how, I really am, and what I truly love: storytelling.

And that’s what I love about Disney. Not so much the rides and the food and merchandising, but the stories that make Disneyland more than an amusement park.

Disneyland resort has moved into the off-season between New Years and Spring Break. This is a rare opportunity for you to enjoy the resort without big crowds for the most part, but the downside is that a ton of maintenance projects will be making touch-ups to spots around the park, work crew will be all over the place and a number of attractions will be closed as the parks take advantage of the smaller crowds to do some refurbishing.

In this episode we discuss the refurbishment of closures and re openings of:

Big Thunder Mountain, The Nightmare Before Christmas, It’s a Small World, The Sailing Ship Columbia, New Orleans Square, Alice in Wonderland, ¡Viva Navidad!, The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and Soarin’ over California.

In A Little DLR History

Paul refutes Meryl Streep’s comments about Walt Disney at the National Board of Review Awards on Tuesday (1-7-14), and he and Daniel briefly discuss “Saving Mr. Banks”.

Join us with Daniel and Tommy of The Disgeek Podcast as we discuss Halloween at Disneyland, and we introduce a new segment, “Disney Attraction Origins”. For our first, we have decided to go with a DLR fan favorite, and classic attraction, The Haunted Mansion…kinda goes with the whole Halloween thing too. :D